2007/04/28

According to Lou Krieger's Blogm it appears as if legislation has been introduced to both regulate and legalize online poker in the US. Lou has been following the issue of UIGEA since it became a possibility, let alone a reality. He's done a phenominal job in keeping his readers informed and this time is no different. Lou's blog is a daily read of mine, and if you're not following his writing, you're really missing out.

This does seem to be a great first step in moving to legalize onling gaming, specifically poker. Additionally, the PPA seems to be finally getting their shit together. For a while, it seemed as if the PPA was as impotent and ineffective as... well, let's just say they weren't doing much where it mattered most. Perhaps now, with a bit of reorganization and some support in-house, they'll be better focused in their efforts to get poker formally legalized in the US.

2007/04/26

Through five events, here's the CheckRayz Leaderboard at Poker.com. This Leaderboard event plays out every Tuesday and Wednesday night at 9pm EDT at poker.com. The tournaments can be found in the tournaments area, under the private and scheduled tabs.

2007/04/06

Well, I finally got "most" of the details worked out, but here's the scoop. We're doing a leaderboard poker tour with CheckRayz and here's how it works. The leaderboard points will be accumulated between April 1 - June 30 of 2007. The games will be announced and designated as official CheckRayz Leaderboard Poker Tour Events. Each event will assign points for the place you finish, so if you finish tenth out of ten, you'll receive one, ninth of ten - two, etc.

Additionally, you'll receive points for cashing. So, if you finish first place of ten, you receive ten points for your first place finish and then you'd also receive one point per dollar earned. So if first prize was $20, to keep it simple, you'll receive 20+10 or 30 points to the leaderboard.

Additionally, the games will vary - not just NLHE. Event 1 and 2 have already been announced and will be at poker.com on 4/11 ($1+.1 R/A) and 4/12 ($1+.1 PLO8). Passwords are all on the CheckRayz website. I'll additionally get around to making a complete list of rules to post on the website.

The way this is going to work though, is that the top portion (top portion to be determined at a later date - not too much later though) of the leaderboard will compete for our grand prize, which will also be determined at a somewhat later date and will vary based on participation.

2007/04/02

I'm going to start off with a disclaimer... I do not know anything, nor do I have any special insight about any of what I'm talking about (unless noted). That being said, I'd like to discuss the recent speculation on the state of the Blogger Poker Tour.

As we all surely know, I'd been a quite active member of the BPT since it's first season. During that first season, the BPT sent one blogger to the WSOP. There was a bit of down time, then the tour was back for a season 2, where they sent two bloggers to Australia for the Aussie Millions. Your's truly was one of such bloggers. I strongly suspect there was an expectation from the BPT community that there'd be a quick turn-around and there'd be a season three starting right away. Based on a few things, I'm not sure that expectation is/was realistic.

As I may or may not have discussed before, there were some technical... "issues" in Australia for the Millions. Among said "issues," the poker.com logo was not permitted on the formal featured table. It should be noted that the logo met all of the stated specifications in terms of size and what not. However, apparantly Fox Sports took issue to the fact that the logo pointed directly to a website that one could download, deposit, and play poker. This is not to be confused with poker rooms such as Pokerstars, who advertise their "dotnet," which does in fact point to their poker room, however, the cash table and cashiering functions are disabled. This, and other unmentioned "politics" led to the poker.com logo to not be allowed on the televised featured table.

That being said, when everyone got back to the "office," there was a scramble of sorts to resolve the logo issues. After all, what good is a banner if you cannot fly it, right? My strong suspician is that the Carbon Poker brand was created as a result.

How does this tie into the BPT?

Even if there were intentions to immediately turn around and hit up a season 3 in time for the WSOP, I'd guess that this rebranding of sorts takes time, energy, and focus. As a result, it is not now, nor has it been my belief or expectation that the BPT would have yet been underway.

That being said, I remain confident there will be a season 3 in the near future. My guess is that the great staff at poker.com/carbon poker are working out the details, top to bottom so that everything from logoware, to the affiliate program, to defining what "total access" means, and other important stuff - details, redtape, etc are taken care of with respect to the brand. Until that, projects such as the BPT naturally have to take a backseat.

Rest assured, poker.com gave their best effort to make the Aussie Millions something special. It was... Additionally, it served as a learning experience for all involved. My best guess is that they're breaking down the "hand history" from the Millions, and working it out from the business end first, before proceeding with a business venture of this sort (the BPT).

My guess is that season three starts mid-summer.

Until then...?

That being said, what shall we do in the interim? Lately, I feel like the busiest person in the world. Between raising my children, this new job, CheckRayz, trying to launch a few businesses, and running my weekly charity game I barely have time to breath.

However, Sunday is my designated poker day, it seems. I'd be willing to host an unoffical blogger poker tour reunion game, league or series at poker.com - if there's an interest and we have Shane's blessing to do so.

Some logistical problems, however, do occur with this. Of course, if I were hypothetically hosting, while I'd hope to accomidate the masses with respect to day and start time, the fact remains that I'm going to first accomidate my own needs regarding timeslot. Said another way, I check my availability and bounce it off of that which would seemingly best suit the masses.

If something like this was put together, Sunday at 9am EDT would be the timeslot. Realistically, that is the only time slot I have where I am free start to finish. This timeslot would seem to be UK friendly, meaning most likely a favorable time for "Hot Laura," but would be bad for those living on the West Coast of the US such as Joey.

On that note, perhaps I'll talk to Shane and discuss as to whether or not he'd give this his blessing. As I said, the blessing of the commish is important to me, and I'll not proceed forward if I do not have it, and/or are stepping on anyone's toes.

Also, drop me a line, either via the comments or email, letting me know if you'd be interested in a game of this nature. The tourneys would be a low level buy-in. We can play around with pricing. I may or may not be successful in securing an overlay.

I'll keep everyone posted... As for those of us who are members of CheckRayz. Tune in tomorrow, as I'll have some news regarding what's in store for the CheckRayz games (and yes, there will be regular weekly games in April).